Activist and lawyer Aires Rodrigues on May 26 filed a petition before the Bombay High Court at Goa seeking the transfer of the search for the absconding convicted former Minister Mickky Pacheco to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The petitioner gave the sequence of events leading to Mr. Pacheco’s conviction by the High Court and the Supreme Court on March 30.

The former Goa Minister and MLA, Mickky Pacheco, surrendered before a court in Margao on June 1 . He was absconding for nearly two months following his conviction in a case of assault on a government servant.

He was later formally arrested by Goa police and sent to Sada jail in Vasco in south Goa after medical check-up.Former minister and Nuvem MLA Francisco (Mickky) Pacheco was taken to the Goa Medical College and Hospital two times time since being imprisoned at Sada sub-jail .

Aires Rodrigues’ advocate made a complaint with the IG prisons alleging that Pacheco was taken to Goa Medical College (GMC) and Hospital, Bambolim, without his prison uniform after he complained of a health problem on Friday evening, the officer said they have sought a report from the jail superintendent at Sada sub-jail in the matter.

Adhinath Bhaje was the duty officer at Sada sub-jail when Pacheco was taken to hospital.

Advocate Aires Rodrigues’ in his face book states

The convicted and now jailed Goa former Minister Mickky Pacheco in violation of the Goa Prison Rules is being given VIP treatment at the Sada Jail where he has on June 1st commenced undergoing the six month jail sentence for having in 2006 assaulted Electricity department Junior Engineer Kapil Natekar.

Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar after helping their friend Mickky Pacheco abscond for two long months, are now covertly pressurizing Sada jail authorities to go all out to help Mickky Pacheco as he is an MLA supporting the current BJP Government.

The government is making a mockery of the judiciary by high-handedly giving Mickky Pacheco VIP treatment in jail. If Mickky Pacheco is not treated on par with other convicts it would be appropriate to move the High Court seeking that Mickky Pacheco be transferred to a jail in neighboring Karnataka or Maharashtra, so that he undergoes the jail sentence strictly in accordance with law without any political patronage. A detailed documented report of how the jail rules are being flagrantly breached to unlawfully benefit Mickky Pacheco would be submitted to the Court.

Mickky Pacheco has not been convicted for a petty crime but a very serious offence against the State of having as a Minister assaulted a public servant. His conviction was upheld by four Courts and the Supreme Court as well.

It is a matter of concern that watching this sordid Mickky Pacheco Saga the people of Goa will be losing their faith and trust in the justice delivery system if the rich and the politically well connected are allowed to be above the law. There cannot be two yardsticks for convicts. The law mandates that they all be treated alike.